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Decent returns for Belgian Pension Funds over 2015

26 January 2016

Belgium,
Brussels

Each year, Mercer’s Pension Investment Performance Survey (PIPS) analyses the returns of 80 active funds which represent about 50% of all active corporate pension funds in Belgium. Based on a limited sample of 40 funds surveyed, Belgian pension funds achieved a decent median return of +4.9% over the year 2015. The bulk of the profit can be attributed to equities (+ 8.8%) whereas bonds achieved a meagre +0.5%.

The best returns were achieved in the Japanese stock market and the real estate sector with respective returns as high as +21.3% and +18.4%. The Euro zone and U.S. stock markets also yielded very decent returns with +11.8% and +11.2%, respectively.

These excellent Japanese and US results are attributable in part to the weakness of the Euro: the U.S. Dollar increased 11.8% in value and the Japanese Yen increased by 11.1%. The weakest return was achieved by investments in the emerging markets with (-6.0%) for equities (-0.5%) for corporate bonds.

On the longer term – which is the investment perspective that corresponds best with the objectives of pension funds - the overall situation is also positive. Over a 5, 10,20 year period, corporate pension funds achieved an actual return, after inflation, of respectively +5.5%, +2.2% and +4.3% per annum.

The asset allocation over the different asset classes over 2015 is as follows:

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